Chapter 14 Ezra
EZRA
Me? I never thought there would be a time when I actually hated my father more than someone who was planning on keeping me hostage.
There were absolutely no scenarios where that was ever a possibility…
and yet, here I was, hating Victor less than my own father.
He might’ve been a horrible person, but he’d been honest to my father about what he wanted and the price it would cost. My father had lied to me about this nearly every step of the way.
Not to mention the whole trading his son to get his ass out of the trouble he’d created for himself.
My father had fucked up, and he’d decided that selling me was the best way to fix that fuck-up. My father could redress that and rename it in any way he wanted to, but Victor was right. My father saw me as a way to get money and was eager to hand me over for it.
Fuck that noise.
There was no part of me that liked Viktor as a person. None. He was absolutely horrible, from every single thing I’d seen and heard from him. But even so, I could see why Victor did it.
Knowing that someone was trying to hunt you dead, and not only you but everyone you cared about, simply because of who you were born as, was fucked up on a whole new level. And then to hear that he is on the loose? Yeah. I’d be in a willing-to-do-anything state too.
I didn’t like the guy. Never would. I hated his tactics, but at the core, I got it. I couldn’t say I wouldn’t have done the same thing in his shoes.
That didn’t mean I thought I was the right person for the job. Sure, I was one of the best marksmen in the country—or, let’s face it, probably the world, but that was a far cry from being able to see danger coming at me. I wasn’t exactly the most aware of my surroundings.
I’d shot at targets and cans and skeets... the normal stuff. I didn’t just shoot at them. I hit them. My skill was to be studied, and that wasn’t me having a big head, it was fact. I could nail it every time.
But a living, breathing human, no matter how vile they were? I wasn’t sure I had the stomach for that. And if he was coming at someone, even the tiniest hesitation could be the difference between life and death.
My mate held onto my hand, discussing the terms of my training with Viktor. It wasn’t a case of my not being allowed to have an opinion. If I so much as breathed differently, Ezra asked me what I thought. But I didn’t understand all the discussion, and it was best to leave it to someone who did.
There was so much I still had to learn about shifters.
Ezra and his brothers were going to make sure I was up for the task, both skill wise, but probably more importantly, my headspace.
With them surrounding me, I’d be safe. There was no way Ezra would ever let any harm come to me, and his brothers?
From what little I knew of them, they’d support their brother one million percent, and by default, me too.
But as they were talking, Viktor made it very clear that they were not allowed on pack land and that I had to stay on pack land. After some back and forth, a lot of growling, and me telling them I couldn’t concentrate without my mate nearby, they finally decided to let him come with me.
It was Ezra and me, and that was it.
If at any point in time Viktor didn’t think my training was going smoothly enough, he made it crystal clear that Ezra would be leaving.
That was terrifying, especially since I hadn’t even so much as hunted a bunny or a deer or even a bird.
Nothing. I wasn’t even one of those kids who loved Nerf wars. It wasn’t my thing.
So what if I wasn’t good enough? What if I couldn’t do it? What if I lost everything right after I got it… and by everything, I meant Ezra. There was something to the whole “true mate” thing. If somebody had told me about true mates a few days ago, I’d have scoffed… but now, I felt what it meant.
Ezra wasn’t a one-night stand. He wasn’t a boyfriend. He was everything. My home. And that sense of home was the only thing that gave me strength as we climbed into a van and drove back to what would soon become my temporary home.
On the way there, my mate never let go of my hand. The driver, who I discovered later was the head of protection for Victor, didn’t speak the entire ride. It was saying something… If he was protecting me like that, Viktor truly believed I was their only shot.
And the reality was that if there was a hunter coming for shifters, I had to deal with it. The task would have 100% of my focus because my family could easily be Calloway’s next target.
When I found out what my father had done, he was no longer family. Family didn’t do that to each other.
The Greys were, and all the extended family that came with them. I needed to get this Calloway guy all taken care of for them. Because if I didn’t, and he did the unspeakable… I didn’t want to live in a world my mate didn’t exist in. I refused to.
I don’t know what I envisioned for pack lands.
Probably something very formal and daunting, or maybe completely rustic.
But Viktor’s, it just seemed like a random place.
Nothing had it standing out as “packish.” But then again, that probably had to do with blending in with the human world, I supposed.
We were led inside and shown our room. We were not staying at the Ritz. There was a tiny room with a bed. It would do. This wasn’t a vacation destiny. I was here to train and rid the world of Calloway. Once those were accomplished, I was out of there.
As they left us that night, instead of a sweet bedtime story, they said, “You will be guarded all night. Don’t make the mistake of trying to leave. It won’t end well.”
We gave our word we weren’t leaving. Victor didn’t know that, though, and he didn’t trust us, which was probably fair, because he did try to trade for me, and then he kept the other Greys out. That alone would be enough to have anyone go back on their word.
“We’re gonna get through this, right?” It was the first time I’d spoken since we climbed into the van.
Ezra pulled me into a hug, holding me tightly. “We are one thousand percent getting through this.”
“What if I’m not able to do it?”
“Mate, listen to me. When you are faced with life or death, you’re able to do things you never thought you would be able to do.
This is going to be one of those situations.
And trust me, everyone’s doing what they can to make sure it doesn’t get to the scenario where you are the one who does have to deal with him. ”
He kissed my cheek. “I don’t want you to have to live with that. I like your gentle spirit. But if you need to, I know you can.”
“We need to get some rest,” I said, needing to not go down the path of what my success would look like.
He kissed the top of my head, then stepped back. “When they say they’re going to come get us, that means at any time. And my guess is it’ll be earlier rather than later.”
“How can I sleep with all that’s gone on?” Rest was one thing. Sleep was another.
“In my arms, of course.”
And I wouldn’t say sleep came easily, but it would have been impossible if I weren’t wrapped in his arms.
At first I snuggled in close and asked him to tell me about his childhood, thinking a story would put me to sleep.
I vastly underestimated my mate’s storytelling skills.
Then, once he realized he was keeping me awake with his speaking, he sang a sweet lullaby about pups.
I remembered hearing it all the way through and asking him to sing it again, but after that… nothing. Sleep had finally come.